Lazy Marketing apologises for false advertising: How can adland players safeguard creatives' work?

Hong Kong-based marketing agency Lazy Marketing has apologised for false advertising, after it uploaded local creative agency Narrow Door’s campaign to its website without consent and claimed the production and filming of the video ad was done by Lazy Marketing.

According to an official statement released on Narrow Door’s Facebook page last Friday, Edmond Ling, founder of Lazy Marketing attributed the uploading of the Shiseido 150th anniversary campaign on its website to the miscommunications between its design and production teams.

Ling apologised for false advertising and infringing the copyright of the participated parties of the campaign and moral rights of the director of the campaign. The campaign ad has been taken down from Lazy Marketing’s website and Ling promised the company will not publish Narrow Door's work on its website without consent. Currently, Lazy Marketing’s website is not available, a check by MARKETING-INERACTIVE saw.

Narrow Door said Lazy Marketing has also published another promotional event of Shiseido at IFC mall earlier, and Lazy Marketing claimed to have "cooperated with the organiser to invite MIRROR, the hottest new band in Hong Kong, to attend the event. The youthful and beautiful image of the brand and the idols will generate social energy.”

Since then, Narrow Door requested its client to clarify the incident. However, its client said Lazy Marketing has never been hired to execute any promotional events with Shiseido. After several rounds of negotiations, Lazy Marketing has signed the apology statement and issued a certain amount of legal fee to Narrow Door.

The Facebook post has garnered over 700 likes, 249 reshares and 40 comments, with many citizens saying this is a fraud and many industry players have been deceived by Lazy Marketing, a check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE saw.

Is Lazy Marketing’s apology enough? 

Industry players MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to pointed out that Lazy Marketing’s move was completely unethical and unacceptable. A former PR professional who wished to speak under anonymity said as a company that helps clients drive marketing and business, the agency should have been transparent about the work they did on the Shiseido ad.

“Claiming someone else's work as their own is a complete fraud and shows a complete absence of business ethics and professionalism," said former PR professional added.

This can be disheartening for those of us who work hard to create authentic and compelling work that resonates with our clients and their audiences.”

Agreeing with the former PR professional’s view was David Ko, managing director of RFI Asia, who said Lazy Marketing has also tarnished its own reputation and credibility in the industry. “An apology and paying some lawyer fees are not enough to compensate for the damage they have done to the original creators, Narrow Door, and to the client, Shiseido,” he added.

The apology can perhaps help address the PR kerfuffle for now. However, Desmond Ku, founder and director of The Bridge Agency said Lazy Marketing should promise not to “steal” any other agency’s work and claim it as their own.

How can the industry come together to clamp down on “copy cats”? 

While it is difficult to predict if someone will steal agencies’ work and publicly claim the work as its own, industry players believed that the local government and industry players should also come together to work on how to safeguard the professionalism of the local adland.  

RFI Asia’s Ko said there is not enough protection for copyright infringement in Hong Kong, as the current laws are too vague and broad, and do not cover digital media adequately.

He added:

There is a need for more comprehensive and effective legislation that can address the challenges and opportunities of the digital era.

On the creative front, Desmond So, CEO of local creative agency Uth Creative said agencies rely on advertisers to support them and defend their position as the idea originators in the market. “With the client's support, we can take legal action, if necessary,” he added.

So said:

In addition, the ad industry and advertisers should work together to create a system to report misleading credential work, so that advertisers can clarify the truth within the marketing industry.

Monitoring uploaded work online can also help prevent similar situations from happening, according to Andy Chan, managing partner of creative agency Durian Hong Kong. “It is really hard to completely avoid such incident, especially when some members of one agency leave the firm and restart another agency. They may claim some of the previous work as their own when they pitch to clients,” he added.

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